Chapter 1

Stars twinkled in the skies at night, decorating the black skies with sparkling light, but the flames on the Earth were much brighter as houses were burned with dragon fire. A battle between monster and man continued, as both sides fought against scales and skin. Claws clashed against swords and teeth clamped down on battle axes, it was clear neither side would back down. A Gronckle let out a sluggish growl of frustration when a net suddenly engulfed it, malfunctioning its flying ability in midair. The dragon started falling with a load screech, crashed harshly on its side into the ground and skidding a few feet away, leaving a trail of long skid marks and damaged orange scales behind.

Still wincing from the impact, the dragon did not realize it had landed only inches away from death. Opening its eyes half way, the Gronckle shrunk back and froze at the sight of the shield maiden before it. It released a whimper, begging for mercy, but the fire in her blue eyes told it its fate. With one last effort, it tried scrambling away, but only managed to kick its feet in the air uselessly before the warrior let out a raged cry and brought down her axe, piercing its skull. She used her heavily furred boot to keep the dragon's head in place as she yanked her weapon out. The dying animal gave on last twitch before the Viking struck it again, ending its misery.

Astrid exhaled, puffing out white fog. Seeing the beast go limp, she relaxed her shoulder muscles and dropped her head to have a moment of peace to herself. Reaching down to retrieve her axe, muffled footsteps were heard. She quickly grabbed her weapon, spun around and stretched her arm back, ready to throw her trusty axe at –

She froze when her vision finally adjusted and focused on the figure.

"Snotlout!"

"Hi, Babe!" Snotlout quickly switched from surprised to casual… or, at least, pretended to be casual. "Surprised meeting me here?" He flexed his arms and puffed out his chest. "You and me coincidently at the same place, coincidently at the same time? Don't you think it's such a coincident?" She mentally cringed at the way he smiled.

"That, or you followed me here." She added while holding a bored expression.

"F – Followed you here? Me?" He fake laughed while gesturing to himself, "Never! What, you think I'm some sort of stalker?"

Astrid raised as eyebrow.

Dropping his smile, he sighed and lowered his arms, "Fine, yes! I followed you. Are you happy now?"

"No."

"Look, I was following you, but – but then I caught this Gronckle and – "

"Your father caught it, not you." She interrupted him, slightly more irritated. He froze, hands still in the air, only seconds from describing how he tangled the dragon up in a net in the sky.

His eyes nervously searched everywhere, as if he would somehow find intelligent dialogue to use, "… Well, I … came to finish the job! Now, if you'll excuse me," He puffed out his chest once more and side stepped her, "I have a dragon to – " His eyes finally landed on the dragon. "Oh, man! It's already dead!" He turned to her, obviously disappointed, "Babe, that was my kill!"

"Stop crying like a baby." She said as she examined her axe for any damage, "You were slow. It would've gotten away if I hadn't tracked it down."

Snotlout looked suddenly offended, "Slo – Slow! How dare you insult you future chief!"

Astrid was ready to punch him in the jaw before hearing the familiar sound of screaming villagers. Abandoning their bickering, the 20 year olds sprinted to the most crowded area of the battle field. Spotting a purple Nadder near a group of fluffy sheep, Snotlout darted towards the dragon with his hammer and rammed the beasts head. The dragon let out a pained screech before shaking its massive head to clear its vision. Focusing on the buff Viking, the Nadder lowered its head down and gave a warning hiss, sticking out its sharp spins.

Snotlout charged head first, ignoring the dragons warning stance. He threw his hammer directly at is head while the Nadder launched its spikes. The Viking dropped and rolled to the side to avoid the attack, but a nearby Viking wasn't lucky as two spikes pierced his shoulder. The hammer knocked the Nadders head. Irritated, the Nadder retreated backwards before jumping into the air, taking off.

Astrid leaped over a most likely dead Nightmare and continued running. She spotted a large group of vikings straggling to hold down a net containing two Nadders and a Gronckle. The dragons flapped their wings furiously, blowing dust everywhere. A woman holding the net was almost lifted off the ground before Astrid quickly grabbed the net and helped the Vikings hold the dragons down.

Suddenly, a hand pushed Astrid's head down to avoid the Nadder's fire blast. She felt the heat radiating in the air even after the dragon stopped firing. Four massive hands held the net. "We'll take it from here!" One of the gigantic men said as he pulled on the net, bringing down the beasts.

"Next wave!"

Astrid instinctively released the net and looked up. Dragons in many shapes and sizes, flying close together, forming a blanket covering up the stars in the sky. Gripping her axe tightly, Astrid held her breath as she heard the chief's orders.

"Bring it out."

A painfully loud squeaking sound was heard as massive wooden doors were pushed open, revealing, as Tuffnut liked to call it, The Big Boss.

With six gigantic wheels and spikes protruding outwards to prevent dragons from climbing it, The Big Boss had a huge platform and four symmetrical catapults. Objective: Bring down a group of dragons in one shot. It took months to build it. Not only was it extremely heavy, but it was also complicated and difficult to build and use as all four catapults must activate in the same time to release the nets.

Four nets in one weapon? Who would think of such a weird contraption?

One person and one person alone, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, also known as Berk's missing heir. The boy may have disappeared after being chosen to kill the Nightmare, but he was never forgotten. The ones who mistreated him now regret their actions. The ones who had ignored him now wish they had done something for the boy before he had mysteriously vanished.

They had looked everywhere, but found nothing. Some said he had ran away, but after further inspection, it turned out no boats had been used. Others speculated that he had been stolen, either for ransom, or sold into slavery. But the guards in the watchtowers claimed they had seen no boats land on Berk.

The most popular theory was that he was eaten by a dragon, which would make sense as there was no why off the island without a boat, not to mention the poor boy wouldn't have been able to defend himself. But it was strange why no one had sounded an alarm for a dragon attack. Had he ventured too far into the woods? Had he stuck out at night and got attacked while everyone was peacefully asleep?

The most disturbing, and horrific theory was that the boy had been abused at home and decided to commit suicide. The thought itself clawed at Stoick's heart. He never caused any harm to his little boy, but that didn't ease the feeling that he was responsible. Maybe his boy decided to die out of loneliness. Stoick was never the same after losing his only son.

His only remaining family.

After announcing that Hiccup was truly gone, things started crashing down. The chief no longer participated in parties and celebrations, but locked himself in his own home, thinking of the many things he had done wrong. Fishlegs almost tore out his own hair while whispering apologies to the ceiling of his room, hoping the most likely dead boy to hear him.

The twins had be their own usual selves until someone brought up Hiccup's name, they'd instantly shut up. Snotlout had… well… Some people said that the boy's death opened a side in him no one knew existed in Snotlout. Guilt.

While everyone grieved in silence, Astrid preferred to target all her messy anger at innocent trees. Screaming tell her throat hurt and fingers bled from gripping the axe's chipped handle as ugly tears smeared her dirty face.

The only thing she didn't understand was why.

Why was she crying like this?

Why did she suddenly care?

Why did it have to be him?

Just… why?

After the announcement, Gobber's work was as slow as a slug, because, not only did he lose his apprentice, but he lost Hiccup, a boy he had practically raised. After stepping into his apprentice personal work area, he had stumbled onto his sketches. Some were drawings of people, others were of dragons. A smile creeped onto his face, knowing this was all Hiccup's work. One drawing in particular was strange. It was a dragon he had never seen before, with bat like wings and a missing tailfin. Gobber scratched his head. He had never seen this dragon before. Was this the creation of Hiccup's imaginations?

Flipping through drawings, he landed on one of the boy's strange inventions, one that he never got to show him, a combination of catapults adjustments and thick nets. The Blacksmith chuckled. Only Hiccup would think of –

Gobber stopped in his tracks. The boy never had a chance to show off his creations.

Now it was time people saw his full potential.

.

"Set it up!" Stoick ordered, sweat running down his forehead. Men loaded up the weapon with nets and Gobber aimed at the flock coming their way. The downside of the weapon was that it was heavy and couldn't go too high, but it was still heavy enough to slow the dragons down.

Everyone held their ground as they waited for the great impact. Everything seemed to slow down as a familiar, but terrifying screech was hear. Astried blinked and looked up above her head, as did the rest of the Vikings. The sound came again, followed by a rush of wing as the monster flew by. Her heart skipped a beat.

"No… "

It can't be…

"NIGHT FURY!"

"Get down!"

The Vikings scattered like cockroaches while others ducked behind anything close by. Unfortunately for Astrid, she was too stunned to move. A beam of light shot through the sky, hitting its target, which happened to be the catapult, the force of the attack sent debris flaying at all sides. A peace of burned wood scratched Astrid's face, leaving scratch marks on her left cheek. She shielded her eyes by folding her arms in front of her as strong winds from the explosion blew at her hair.

The massive weapon was no more. The wheels were okay, but the upper half of what's left was black burned wood, and nothing. Still burning wood and metal parts sprinkled the ground. Stoick took one last glance up to confirm what he just witnessed. The black shadow flapped its wings one more time before disappearing into darkness.

"It's back."

What's up? Well, as you can tell, English isn't my first language, so inform me of any mistakes so I can fix them.

It's been a few years the last time I wrote any fanfiction stories, mainly because of school and family problem.

My main challenge right now is fitting each character's personality. This is my first HTTYD Fanfiction, so I haven't grasped their personalities yet. And the title? Yeah, I just threw it in in the last second lol XD

P.S

I don't own HTTYD